Focus! That’s the word for today. Focus! What a child needed to learn when a parent gave in to the plea, “Let me mow the yard!” First try and there were weaving cuts in the grass that turned their front yard into a meandering pattern of confusion - and the follow-up lesson,First lesson:“Focus on a marker ahead of you and then keep every cut in line with the first one.”The boy mowed a few passes and then quit. It was hot, he was tired, and besides, some friends came by and invited him to go to the pool.Second lesson the parent added to the first: “Stick with mowing until you are finished!”

Jesus’ Gospel charge carried from a first-century agricultural setting to be applied to our twenty-first-century urban farming: “Focus!” and ‘Stick with what you are doing until the job is done!” - with the “it” not being plowing a field or cutting the grass but what Jesus called “the kingdom of God.”

We who are sitting in a Sunday morning service of worship, listening to Jesus’ stern charge: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” may hear it as a summons that has us wavering back and forth between despair and anger.

Despair that so many are NOT with us in worship and anger that they are not committing to hold to their vow to “profess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior” and be “a faithful member of the church of Jesus Christ” sharing regularly in the worship of God and enlisting in the work of this local church as it serves this community and the world.” (Quotes from the “Order for Confirmation: Affirmation of Baptism,” UCC Book of Worship and New Century Hymnal, p.38 and 41) But, might we hear Jesus’ charge to us who are here in worshipas a call to update the agricultural scene Jesus used for His charge to our day when so many people are what could be called” “Urban farmers?”

Urban farmers whose plow may be a steering wheel of a car working the field of Rt. 422 or the Expressway or turnpike or interstate.For children and teens their hand may be on a football or volleyball or basketball, a hockey or lacrosse stick, tennis racket or golf club, and their field is the surface for their sport.

“Urban farmers” who, when committing to follow Jesus, hear His “fit for the kingdom of God” as the lifelong goal that stands alongside their immediate goals and outlasts all of them.

Just as farming equipment has changed from that Gospel plow, might we see that we who are able to be here on a Sunday morning, listening to Jesus’ charge:“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”have a new mission to those “urban farmers” whose field is the workplace or the sports clubs and games that keep them from being with us.

Our first mission is to: let them know we are praying for them- and we let them know when we see them, or through a call or test message, because we know they want to be here but there are work assignments or sports schedules that can’t be changed. It’s the reality of today’s world! Our first mission: to let those who are caught in that bind know we pray that they may have the strength to balance all the pressures in their life.

Our second mission is to: use the electronic, high tech world as the new Gutenberg press that more than 500 years ago made it possible for the Bible to be in the hands of the people, who received it with more excitement that the announcement that Christopher Columbus had discovered a New World.Now we can give those who are taken away from worshiping with us: - web site addresses for daily devotionals and readings of the lessons we are hearing; and our church’s webpage with a weekly sermon; - along with sing-along CD’s for families to play as they travel and hear songs that carry the words of the Bibles and teach what it means to be followers of Jesus, - and we have a weekly email message that is a virtual visit with missionaries and the places where they are serving, and an online emersion in the life and faith of Christians all around the world. Our second mission: to let those who are caught in the bind of schedules know they can use a cell phone, IPad, or laptop to be in church electronically, to grow into living the Jesus life, to be fixed on the life-long goal of being “fit for the kingdom of God.”

And our third mission: (in keeping with our name “Trinity Church” having a “Trinitarian” mission)To rejoice in those times when we can all be together in worship, around Jesus’ table set with bread and cup,and when we can sit in our “upper room” – Hendricks Room – where we say “we are doing what we do best – eat,” and add, “We are practicing, because Jesus said the kingdom will begin with a banquet.”

All the time, however, we hold to two convictions of Christ’s family, the church, two UNCHANGING commitments:One, the work remains the same – to use the plow of the Bible and the worship and sacraments of the church to plant the seeds of new life in Christ in the soil of people’s lives.Two: the focus remains the same – to live as citizen of God’s kingdom.,

“Urban farming!” in these challenging, exciting times!

May God hold our hands to the plow and fix our eyes on the goal early Christians put into words that relate to our sports motivated and regulated times: (Hebrews 12: 1,2) “let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” AMEN.

Today’s Gospel doesn’t sound like a good reading for Father’s Day.Dads, grandfathers, uncles, and all the men in our family life and the family of the church, don’t need to be reminded that these days can be a replay of today’s Gospel. And yet, because that might be true, it can be therapeutic to read ourselves into the story that is really the perfect gift for Dad and everyone else,with the “everyone else” being each and all of us.

So, let’s open this seemingly inappropriate gift and pick out the name “Legion.” t describes how the man felt. It was as though a Roman legion of 6,000 were attacking him, pressures that were unnerving, sending him into an uncontrollable rage that literally drove him out of his home and community, to live in the caves of a cemetery.Interesting, isn’t it, that some basements are being converted into a “man cave” that is a place to escape from the legions of life’s pressures; a far more commodious retreat than the one in the Gospel story which in our time are chosen and not a dreaded sentence as it was for the man condemned to a cemetery cave.

For today’s men that sentence may be quite subtle, but just as demeaning, like this alliteration on the word “Father” that was a TV advertisement:"F" is for your favorite occupation. (a man is pictured asleep in a chair)"A" is for the anniversaries you blew (mother is shown waiting in vain for father to come home for their anniversary dinner)"T" is for talk and your sparkling conversation (dad is depicted as reading a newspaper while the children and wife are talking to him)"H" is for the helpful things that you do (dad is shown missing the wall and poking a ladder through a window)"E" is for each time you were forgetful (this shows him leaving his pregnant wife standing at the front of the house while he dashes off to the hospital)"R" is for the recitals that you attended (father is shown being literally dragged to his child's piano recital).The ad concluded by saying: He may not be a perfect father but he does deserve a perfect gift. Give him an arrow shirt for Father's Day. (Adapted from Sermns.com for June 19,2016)

The putdown of Dads that’s in that commercial! It’s enough for a man to pick up on Rodney Dangerfield’s line, “I get no respect!”

And that’s why there’s a picture in the Gospel gift box that’s drawn in the words:The people…found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.Afraid of the wondrous change Jesus made in the man whose troubles earned him the name “Legion?”

The Rev. Dennis Patterson Jr. (associate priest for parish life and Christian education at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Atlanta, GA.) reminds us that the man faced up to the truth that his life was in crisis and he couldn’t do anything about it.

Somewhere I read about a man being in a hotel room on a business trip.People thought he had everything going for him, a wonderful wife, an upscale house, children who adored him and a job with six-digit figures and an impressive position in a world-class corporation. But that night, alone in that hotel room, his world came crashing in one him; the pace of his schedule, the responsibilities of his work, long hours away from his family, were turning him into a person, who if Jesus had asked, “What’s your name?” would had said, “Legion!”

Like the man in the Gospel he let the nakedness of his life be covered with the garment of Christ’s presence; the same gift that’s for everyone, each and all of us.

There’s one more piece in the Gospel box.Reach in and pull out another sketch of the man, now fully dressed in Christ, and notice that he is begging: that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, ‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

This morning the letter which accompanies the Gospel has us hearing: As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.reminding “everyone”- men and women, of any age, that the gift we receive – the garment of Christ’s life – is a gift meant to be opened and shared…in our everyday life, in our everyday places.

There are fathers and grandfathers who are now models of Mr. Fitzsimmons, the church’s “Dad” to teenage boys he taught in Sunday School and mentored in ushering in church; there are cherished letters a father wrote weekly to his children through their high school years and still does on to this day, always signed with, “I love you very much.”Now one Dad skypes his wife and children every night from wherever his company has sent him, and ends each internet visit with a prayer and the blessing, “May the love of Christ dwell in us.”Another family whose Father’s Day was a weekend at the shore, took his children to the beach; as they walked he told them today’s Gospel story, and then repeated the lines:One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.” Mary Stevenson, 1936​Step into today’ Gospel story, read today’s letter, and receive them as the perfect gift for Dad and everyone else. AMEN.

The question most college and post grad students may have asked last month and high school students have just asked, “How’d you do in your exams?” with the response varying from “aced it” to “flunked it!”

In today’s Gospel a dinner party is turned into a classroom as Jesus, a guest meant to be flattered by being invited, becomes the Master Teacher announcing test results. To Simon, the host, He says, “You’ve flunked the course!” To “a woman of the city, a sinner,” He says, “You’ve aced it!” and then Jesus dismisses her with His commencement-like blessing, “Go in peace.”

Our high school English teacher, Miss Baylson, had a distinctively grating voice that engraved her definition of “commencement” on our minds. “Commencement,” said Miss Baylson, “means ‘to begin.’ When you leave this school you are to commence to practice all we’ve tried to teach you.” Today, in the church’s dinner party setting of Holy Communion, we are guests of the Risen Christ, who comes to us through bread and cup, and, at Meal’s end, sends us forth with the same blessing He gave to “a woman of the city, a sinner,” “Go in peace.”

“Go,” to “commence to begin” to live the test Simon failed. “Go” to wherever that is, “go” to whomever you will be among; to practice the test the woman aced.

TO WASH FEET WITH OUR TEARS AND DRY THEM WITH OUR HAIR…not so much literally, but symbolically as we carry our poured out confessions to Christ into our confessed involvement in the plight of others.Harvey Cox, whom many came to know through his book The Secular City, began his ministry in Seoul, Korea where he worked to bring the street prostitutes to Christ. After seven years he could not report a single convert!When Harvey Cox saw himself as Simon looking at that woman and seeing her in Seoul’s prostitutes, seeing their sins, not his, God opened his eyes and his heart to know them not so much as sinners, but as people sinned against; they were young girls who had been sold into slavery by their fathers. "The Pharisee and Prostitute," Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.

Isn’t that what we communing Christians, at Meal’s end, are to “go” to “commence to begin,” to be a forgiven and a forgiving people? The test “a woman of the city, a sinner” aced.

TO KISS OTHERS…again, not so much literally, but symbolically as we carry our poured out devotion to Christ into our devoted relationship with others.Kate Huey who writes on each week’s Scripture lessons, says today’s Gospel prompts her to tell her mother’s story about her brother Dan who is five years older than she. When he was told he was going to have a baby bother or sister, he announced if it was a girl he was going to throw her out the upstairs window.Well, reports Kate Huey, the baby was a girl, and they brought me home with more than a little nervousness. Under close – very close – supervision, Dan was brought to the edge of my bassinet so that he could look down at his new baby sister. They say that a beatific smile spread across his face and his dimples were in full bloom as he said, "I didn't know she would be like THAT!" SAMUEL at ucc.org Pentecost 3, 2010, Reflection by Kate Huey

Years ago, residents in the Upper Perkiomen Valley attended a public meeting where those for and those against an issue glared and shouted at each other from opposite sides of the room. When the meeting ended, stayed Pennsylvania Germans were seen shaking hands and hugging “those hippies” they had previously shunned.They found themselves on the same side, united by an issue.

Isn’t that what we communing Christians, at Meal’s end, “go” to “commence to begin,” to be a welcoming people who, as one marriage counselor said of the church, puts the “fun” in dysfunctional family, because Christ’s embrace of us makes it possible to embrace, if only to tolerate, one another in the dysfunctional life of the church that is Christ’s chosen family? The test “a woman of the city, a sinner” aced.

TO ANOINT OTHERS’ FEET WITH OINTMENT…again, not so much literally as symbolically as we carry our poured out service to Christ into service to others…at a cost that may be as costly for us as it was for the woman who gave up an alabaster jar’s ointment.If the woman in the Gospel story was “of the night,” turning her body into a marketable item to be abused and degraded at the hands of others, she gave her only tangible gain for her lost worth as a person.If she was a widow living off an inherited estate, she relinquished her source of security.If she was a successful business woman, she depleted her assets.

Whatever gave her the means or the money to practice extravagantly selfless service; she was setting the example for the church to be a serving people; some of whom make the headlines as the world’s leading philanthropists, but most are unnamed servants whose service may be tending an ailing family member or neighbor, or living on a limited budget so someone may receive an education and get the job they never qualified to hold, or doing mission as it happens here with a schedule to announce the times but no fanfarethat turns the workers into stars and the work into publicity.

Communing Christians, who at Meal’s end, “go” to “commence to begin,” to serve others as Christ serves us,a servant church of the Servant Christ. The test “a woman of the city, a sinner” aced.

So, let’s come to the Table in the church and every table in our homes or restaurants - or wherever we eat in the company of others, and celebrate our eating and our time together as a Gospel-like dinner party with Jesus. AMEN.

THE “C” word for all of us is that word we dread hearing. There’s a diagnostic blood test or X-ray, followed by aphone call from a doctor’s office saying there is a need for a CAT scan and then a PET scan. There’s that anxious time of waiting for the call, that becomes a devastating moment when the report is that “C” word” – CANCER!

There are other much happier “C” words that come into our life, like the “C” word” Commencement” – the word we are rejoicing to live in our church family as some have already gotten their diploma or will get from a high school this week.

Parties have already started and will continue all through summer, promoted by that “C” word: Commencement.

I cannot help but hear an echo of the gruff voice of a much-respected high school English teacher who as we approached our day to be graduated, informed us that “Commencement” is a COMMENCING, a beginning, a launching, a sending into life-long learning and life-long applying and practicing of what we have learned.

Her word analysis suddenly popped the cork on our graduation celebrations and the fizz of the parties soon fizzled out as we commenced to face up to real life that can turn harsh and disappointing as well as having some wonderful highs…which, surprisingly find a trusted, genuine, long-lasting source in an another word that begins with a “C.”

Because we are here in church, we might think the word is “Christian,” but we know some who call themselves by that name so abuse it, that they discredit it to the point of turning people, especially teens and young adults, away, not just from a church but from any religious practice. Those now given the name "nones."

And so, sad to say, we must search for another “C” word that will redeem the abused word “Christian.”

There’s a game like “Where’s Waldo” that has our eyes searching through intricate artwork to spot the man with the red and white hat, but this is a search for the “C” word waiting to be spotted in today’s Gospel story.Listen again to these words:

When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. (Of course they stood still for no Jew was to touch the dead!)And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Did you hear it? That “C” word?When the Lord saw her, he had…(Pause and invite the response): “COMPASSION”

The “C” word I pray at this time of year with all its commencements, each person receiving a diploma, will “commence” to practice; and ALL of US who have been baptized into the faith and family of Jesus Christ, who have all received the Baptismal-Confirmation diploma, that marks us as “Christians,” will redeem from whatever ways it has been corrupted (another “C” word)… with the Apostle Paul’s experience being an example which he has passed on to be read to this day:Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard it said, “The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me.

“They glorified God because of” the sight of one who had hunted down Jesus’ followers to bring them to trial and maybe death, was now filled with the COMPASSION of Christ.

THE “C” word of all “C” words, that in the Greek in which the Gospel story was written was used to refer to the bowels, heart, lungs, liver or kidneys, which in Jesus’ day were thought to be the center of human emotions (from "Are You Alive?" Rev. Luke A. Powery, Duke Divinity Chapel, 2013.) …with Jesus being the perfect model, which He passes on to all who receive Him as Lord and Savior.

“Compassion” which comes from deep, down inside us, from the depth of out gut, and forces us to act. To do the gutsy thing whenever we see someone who is being treated unjustly, someone who is grieving, or lonely or hungry, someone who simply needs us to walk by their side and listen, or someone whose addiction means the compassionate thing to do is pray and wait, the agonizing wait until (in the words of the arable of the Prodigal son, "he comes to his senses") the hardest compassionate thing to do! It’s the only way to relieve the distress we feel inside us.It’s the only way to redeem the word “Christian” back to being “like Christ” – with the “C” word – “COMPASSION.”

Tony Campolo tells a story from World War II when Nazis Storm troopers lined up Jews in Poland by the ditch they had dug, then shot them to death. Their bodies fell into the muddy grave and the Nazis covered them with dirt. One 10-year old boy wasn’t shot and managed to work his way out. Naked and splattered with the blood of his parents, he made his way to the nearest house and begged for help. The woman recognizing him as one of the Jews marked for death, screamed at him to go away and slammed the door. The same happened door after door; the people feared the SS would target them if they were caught helping him. Then something inside him caused him to say what was strange for a Jew.When he knocked at the next door he asked, “Don’t you recognize me? I am the Jesus you say you love.”The door opened, the women swept him into her arms and kissed him, and from that day on cared for him as though he was their own. (Quoted from :”Compassionate Christians?” by Joseph Stapleton)

The Compassionate Christ, when welcomed into the human heart, prompts individuals to do gutsy acts of compassion. THE “C” word that makes all the other words, even Cancer, a joy to practice during all our ties of wellness.And so, each of us, some with diplomas in hand or soon to get one, come to Communion (another “C” word) that brings us to the table set with bread and cup served to us by the Compassionate Christ, and what we receive we become, His compassionate people. Amen.

Author

Rev. Dr. Martha B. Kriebel is Pastor Emerita of Trinity Reformed United Church of Christ in Collegeville, PA